John Kukta, formerly of Burns Saltwater Outfitters and Turner’s Outdoorsman and now working for Fred Hall & Associates, bagged the season’s first albacore by cranking harder and faster.

“We had a four-way jig strike,” said Excel skipper Justin Fleck at Fisherman’s Landing May 27, “and John cranked fast enough to get his in first.”

The albacore was small, a “peanut,” but most gratifying to anglers here in the southland, who’ve been waiting for weeks for this event, signaling the arrival of longfin. Excel had 32 bluefin and 26 albies after skipper Fleck went toward a small area of warmer, 64-degree water.

“We’ve been watching the area for several weeks,” he said. “Thank God for Terrafin! We ended our six-day trip with all the Cedros yellowtail we wanted. We could have had limits, and then we stopped to look at the spot. It was the right day, and flat as the harbor in front of us. There’s lots of birds and bait, lots of life around, and that clean, 64-degree water. I’m excited by the prospects.”

Fleck and his brother Chef Jason were headed for the airport to catch a flight out to Alaska, where they look forward to catching some Chinook salmon.

Kukta, from Laverne, told of taking the first albacore on a Burns hootchie in zucchini color. He used 80-pound Soft Steel Ultra line on a Penn 50 reel and a Calstar 760 H rod; standard heavy trolling gear.

“I had a three-ounce silver torpedo sinker on there, too,” he noted.

The season’s first bluefin came to Steve Wolfe of Weston, who got the 29.8-pounder on a squid with a balloon.

“He jumped out of the water and crashed down on it,” he said. He used a 7/0 ringed Super Mutu hook on 50-pound Ande line, with a TLD 30 reel and a Custom Calstar 700 M rod.

Dan Smith of LA won first place for a dandy 48.8-pound yellowtail he bagged on a blue and white Salas 6X Jr. iron jig and a 40-pound rental outfit.

“This was my first trip,” he said. “I guess I did all right.”

Chris Cornette of Julian noted that his wife and son had been in jackpots, and now it was his turn, as he got second place for a 35-pound yellowtail.

“When we found the bluefin it looked like a kelp paddie or something,” he remarked.

“We came up on this brown spot and it was all squid with their heads out of the water like they wished they could fly.”

James Ansite of Long Beach won third place for the trip’s best bluefin tuna, a 33.8-pounder.

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